


Cursed Objects

by cat_77



Series: Flufftober 2018 [21]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Immortal Husbands, Just Add Kittens, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 08:54:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16364807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cat_77/pseuds/cat_77
Summary: A protection spell goes wrong, leaving Alec to try to figure out how to explain it to the Clave.  Also, there is a kitten.





	Cursed Objects

**Author's Note:**

> For the prompt of “everybody lives/nobody dies.”
> 
> * * *

They were in the middle of a battle when he felt it: the familiar almost there but almost not tangible presence of Magnus’ magic. He was still too far away from it at the moment the feel it’s effects though, they all were. Correction: the Nephilim were. The threesome of demons that steadily advanced were not.

Alec watched as they faltered, the faintest wisps of blue and almost green all around them. Not an explosive blast then, or it was one of the most ineffective ones he had ever witnessed if it was. He questioned if it was supposed to knock them out or confine them, maybe make their venom inert. That thought was discarded then they seemed to visibly shake off whatever it was and continued to plow on, the sizzle as their saliva ate away at the asphalt audible even from his perch.

He let loose an arrow and watched as it was swiped right out of the air. He had expected that though, and its counterpart hit dead center... to do precisely no damage.

“Uh, Alec?” Jace called questioningly. He didn’t wait for a reply and stormed forward, blade at the ready. Only for that too to bounce off harmlessly. He tried again because he was stubborn like that, and ended up knocked against a brick wall for his troubles. “Was that or was that not a Magnus spell?” he asked as he righted himself.

Izzy tried her whip and Clary followed through with her own blades, and both had the same result: nothing.

There was a flash of light and magic coursed freely through the alleyway, bright and blinding. The whistle and the wind of it all eventually wound down and, in the center of it all, stood Magnus. Holding what looked suspiciously like a makeup compact. In fact, Alec was fairly certain it was the same one he had seen just that morning on the bathroom counter.

He made his way down from the fire escape where he had been perched, bow slung over his shoulder now that the danger was apparently gone, and asked, “What was that?”

Magnus winced and looked down at the little bit of plastic and color he held in his hands. “I think I just made my first cursed object?” he offered as more of a question than an answer. He squinted slightly and sighed. “Of course it’s biodegradable packaging. I’m going to need to conjure a stasis field, or maybe use something I already...”

His words dissolved into a low mutter as he worked out the logistics of whatever he needed to do and very pointedly did not expand on the whole violating a major piece of warlock, not to mention Clave, law.

“Magnus...” Alec prompted warningly.

Of course his sister chose that moment to approach. She glanced at the object his boyfriend still held and was damn near gleeful when she demanded, “Is that the new Urban Decay palette? It comes out like this week and I was going to pick one up this weekend. How did you get it already? Can I see if it’s worth it?”

She didn’t reach for it, but Magnus wasn’t about to take the chance and pocketed it. With extreme care. “I have connections,” he eventually answered. “Also, you don’t want this one unless you want to release three possibly immortal demons on the world.”

“Magnus!” he tried again.

His boyfriend spun on the heel of his fine leather shoes, hands already up defensively as he rushed to explain, “It was supposed to be a protection spell. I may, possibly have become distracted in the final casting.”

“Why would you want to protect some demons?” Jace asked.

Magnus rolled his eyes. “Not for the demons, for you,” he insisted. “Help aid you, protect you from venom and claws and all that before they hit versus needing to use your runes after.”

It was a nice idea, if it worked. Unfortunately it clearly did not. Also unfortunately, Clary beat him to asking, “What distracted you?” So very few things would when he got going with something, so it was a legitimate question.

Magnus looked a little sheepish at that. “A kitten.”

Jace blinked and tilted his head to the side as if he had misheard him. “A what? The High Warlock of Brooklyn was distracted by a what?”

“It’s the cutest little furball and it wandered right through the casting area and knocked a few ingredients over which is why the spell ended up far different than intended,” Magnus said, all in a rush. Quieter now, he added, “Also, it might be immortal as well.”

Alec could feel a headache coming on. He had no idea how he was going to write this one up, nor how he was going to keep his boyfriend from the undoubted repercussions from the Clave. He rubbed at the bridge of his nose and nearly pleaded, “Please say you can fix this?”

“Not sure if I can,” Magnus admitted. “Also not sure if I can reproduce it given the accidental nature of it all. But, hey, the big bad demons are vanquished - mostly - and we got an adorable new pet out of the deal?”

“Not reassuring,” Alec bit out.

“Not intended to be,” his boyfriend replied.

Alec huffed and Magnus shrugged and the group all traveled together to figure out what to do with a bespelled cat. Any thoughts he had about turning the beast over to the Clave or finding a home for it in Idris away from curious mundanes disappeared the moments he laid eyes on it. Just as Magnus had described, it was the most adorable little fluffball. It was a solid almost silver gray with yellow-green eyes that he swore had little flecks of blue in them as well. The entire tiny bundle could curl up to rest comfortably in the palm of his hand. 

Which it did. 

Which is when he knew he was screwed.

“Somehow, I doubt the Clave is going to find out about this,” Clary commented. She brushed just the tip of her finger up the bridge of its nose to its soft forehead and earned an adorable chirping purr for her efforts.

“If you let them add him to their bestiary, I will have to hurt you,” Jace added.

“You’ll have to fight your way through me first,” Isabelle warned. It would have been more threatening if it didn’t have the coo at the end when the sucker tried to crawl from Alec’s hand up her arm to bury its face in her cleavage.

Which is how the head of the New York Institute signed off on a report stating only that the High Warlock of Brooklyn managed to banish the three demons before they could wreak havoc on the populace.

It was months before anyone really figured out that the supposed power couple had a new cat that was something more than the usual strays. It was a full five years later before his own mother noticed MacLeod didn’t age. It was about five minutes after that before she got the story out of him and swore she would never tell or do anything to risk her grandkitten. By that point, the cat had survived a warlock battle, the remnants of the Circle members, and a literal demon attack. When a foolish Circle member had threatened once again to take Magnus’ real eyes as a prize, Macky took the member’s own instead, earning him quite the reputation.

Over the ensuing years, rumors began to fly as more and more Downworlders and Shadowhunters alike began to notice that it really was not the offspring of the original stray but the stray itself that they kept seeing. Some thought it had been blessed, some thought it had been cursed, and most were convinced its collar held some sacred object that granted it its miraculous longevity.

After exactly three attempts, precisely no one dared to take the now legendary being away from its adoptive parents.

Absolutely no one ever noticed a certain urn inscribed with sigils and runes that rattled if jostled, the benefits of the reputation of an eccentric warlock with a love for the classics as well as the latest of literally everything.

It was nearly one hundred years to the day from when Alec woke to a plaintive series of chirps and meows for food from the clearly starving and clearly spoiled rotten animal that had finished off an entire bowl of cream only hours before. Even though Magnus could manage it with a snap of his fingers, he stumbled out to the kitchen to fetch the food and maybe start up some coffee for himself. As he took that first scalding sip and Macky circled around his ankles in thanks, he took a moment to contemplate cursed objects, and what a blessing they had become in his life.


End file.
